Currently, the computer-aided design of a garment is limited to the definition of patterns on a smooth surface which represents the surface of the garment surrounding a virtual mannequin and the laying-flat of the three-dimensional (3D) surfaces which are created against a two-dimensional (2D) surface.
FIG. 17 illustrates the various steps for the computer design of a garment according to the prior art.
In a first step E101, there is loaded into the computer a virtual garment surface 111 which may be a virtual mannequin or any other surface representing a skirt, trousers, sleeves, etc. The virtual garment surface 111 can be defined by a set of measures and parameters promoting freedom of movement, as well as by the basic shape of the garment.
Then, in step E102, stitch lines 115 are defined on this virtual surface 111 to create three-dimensional patterns 113a. These patterns 113a are created exclusively by drawing design or stitch lines 115 on the virtual surface 111 of the garment. Thus, the resulting three-dimensional patterns 113a are the various regions of the virtual surface 111 delimited by these stitch lines 115.
Subsequently, in step E103, the flat patterns 113c corresponding to the three-dimensional patterns 113a are calculated automatically by a laying-flat method.
A laying-flat method is described for example by B. K. Hinds et al. in the article <<Interactive garment design>> published in 1990, in The Visual Computer (6) pages 53-61.
The main advantage to be used for the clothing industry of a three-dimensional-type computer-aided design (CAD) is the assurance that the flat patterns 113c resulting from the laying-flat operation are capable of clothing the shape and the volume of a model or of a human body and that the existing relationships between the three-dimensional patterns 113a forming the garment are automatically maintained.
However, these methods place stringent limitations on the nature of the flat clothing patterns 113c. Indeed, the patterns calculated by the laying-flat methods are not capable of reproducing the same constraints as those defined by pattern designers or patterners.
Moreover, these methods use above all geometric or topological criteria and do not take into account the properties of the fabric or the style properties commonly used by patterners.
Furthermore, in these methods, the three-dimensional patterns are represented by lining surfaces of the virtual base surface. Indeed, the three-dimensional patterns are defined by cut-out or stitch lines limiting closed regions on the virtual base surface. Thus, the three-dimensional patterns are limited to being sub-surfaces of the virtual base surface.